Elgeyo Marakwet county will scale up the production of the Apple and Ngoe variety of mangoes after securing a contract with Premier foods company to buy the same from farmers.
The agriculture Chief Officer (CO) Edwin Komen said the company visited the Kerio Valley and took a sample of the mangoes and agreed that mangoes from the area have more sugar content.
Komen however said the company settled for the Apple and Ngoe varieties and therefore the need to supply more of the variety seedlings to the farmers so that they can plant and meet the demand.
Speaking in Kerio Valley, the CO said farmers last year suffered losses after they failed to get market for their mangoes and were forced to sell them at throwaway prices in the local market.
“However, this year, farmers have an assurance that Premier foods will buy their mangoes,” he said.
He added that the county had realized that there was a challenge in managing mango diseases saying the department of agriculture will be working with farmers to help them in identifying and treating the diseases.
He added that the county was liaising with the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (Kephis) to get insect traps to address the invasion of mangoes by pests.
Speaking during the same occasion, Sambirir MCA Paul Suter urged the residents to allocate more funds to agriculture during public participation of the budget saying this was the only way to empower people.
“It’s a pity that during public participation, people allocate more funds to construction of buildings which most of the time do not add any value to their lives. Let’s allocate at least 30-40% of ward funds to agriculture and we shall see the difference,” he said.
He called on youth to embrace agriculture saying many were leaving the area to look for white collar jobs in the country’s major towns and even outside the country yet they can make more money in farming.
He said Elgeyo Marakwet county is blessed with three different agricultural ecological zones meaning that different crops do well in the area and therefore one only needs to identify which crop to plant and make money.
Suter pointed out that youth in farms make more money than those in employment and therefore dissuaded them from looking for white collar jobs most of which underpay them.
“This idea of chasing white collar jobs should stop as it’s not the way to fight poverty,” he said.
By Alice Wanjiru
